Today, I am so incredibly happy to say that I am reviewing the Sakuraco Japanese snack box subscription! Below you’ll find my thoughts on what came in the box, whether it is good value for money, and how to try it for yourself.
But first, a confession.
When I received an email from Sakuraco about a collaboration opportunity… I screamed. Ever since we started blogging at Immortal Wordsmith, there have been a few companies that have been on the dream list. If any of these dream list companies reached out for a collab, we would know the blog had become a success – we’d know we made it. Sakuraco was one of those companies.
I replied professionally to the email (keeping the fan girl vibes locked away) and they sent me a box to review for free. Now let’s dive in.
Quick Summary
Izzy’s Rating: 4.8 out of 5
My key takeaways are:
- It’s staggeringly beautiful and well put together.
- The snacks are legit high-quality, not cheap.
- There’s a good range of different things to try, so you won’t feel like you’ve missed out if a couple items aren’t to your tastes.
- The price is worth it when you want to treat yourself, but it’s a little out of my budget for a monthly subscription.
My main gripes were the amount of packaging to individually wrap everything in plastic (though I’m not sure this was avoidable), and the quality/quantity of the tea. However, to be fair, I’m an avid tea drinker so my standards are pretty high.
What’s In The Sakuraco Box?
I received the ‘Summer in Hokkaido’ box which was released for June 2026. Inside the box:
- Postcard from Ayumi Chikamoto, founder of Sakuraco
- Booklet explaining all the treats, culture and history of Hokkaido
- Assorted savoury treats
- Assorted sweet treats
- Hokkaido adzuki tea
- Ceramic kobachi bowl
The postcard and booklet give you some information about the region your Sakuraco box is celebrating, plus it helps you identify all your snacks with pictures and a short description of what to expect. As most of the snacks are authentic Japanese snacks, their packaging labels are in Japanese – you need the booklet to understand what’s what.
I loved the guide and little history facts dotted throughout. The booklet is marked as ‘Snack Guide’ and ‘Vol. 64’ so you can collect them.
Savoury Treats
The sweet treats outnumbered the savoury, but there was still a good balance. Savoury options were:
- Wasabi Pumpkin Seeds – the wasabi-flavoured snacks I’ve had in the past were intense, but these had just the right pop of heat to match the crisp snap of the seed. Delicious!
- Crab Arare – tasted like a thick prawn cracker with a stronger, saltier, seafood flavour.
- Taiho Crackers – sweet-savoury twisty crisps with a BBQ soy sauce flavour. They were very sticky and had a good crunch, but then almost dissolved on the tongue. I LOVED these.
- Hokkaido Cheese Arare – the first snack I didn’t care for. The cheese is intense in a way that tasted fake to me.
What I really appreciated about the Sakuraco box was the quantities of the snacks. There were at least two of each item to try – the first to nibble tentatively to see if you like it, the second to really savour when you know what to expect.
Sweet Treats
I have an infamous sweet tooth, so I was so excited to try these treats. Sweet options were:
- Yubari Melon Jelly – I popped these in the fridge as directed by the leaflet, then ate them both without photographing them nicely. They just tasted so good! The melon flavour is fresh and a good balance of sweetness and greenness.
- Hokkaido Strawberry Cookie – the texture was incredible, melting in the mouth like a Viennese Swirl with a strawberry-flavoured centre. I’m not keen on strawberry-flavoured foods usually, but I’ll make an exception for this cookie and Perfect Ted’s Strawberry Matcha Latte.
- Hokkaido Milk Soft Candy – sticky, gummy fudge texture with a flavour like milk bottle sweets. Yum.
- Hokkaido Butter Cookie – buttery and baked golden, this was the ultimate simple biscuit. I loved it! It reminded me of Nice biscuits, sans coconut.
- Hokkaido Chocolate Cream Bread – it got a little flattened in the Sakuraco Box during transit, but the flavours were still lovely. Like a pain au chocolat but creamier.
- Yubari Melon Daifuku – a soft, chewy melon-flavoured rice cake. It was far denser than the mochi I’d had in the UK and the flavour was so strong it almost seemed alcoholic.
- Sapporo Castella Senbei – I adored these! They are stamped with a little bit of history in the shape of the Sapporo Clock Tower and have a fabulous snap.
The Sakuraco Box I received for Hokkaido focused a lot on melons and dairy, as the region is known for producing a lot of milk and a specific variety of melon. I really liked that they carried this into the snacks.
Considering the box was shipped from Japan, the creamy flavours tasted really fresh – even in the pastry. Though I don’t like the fact that everything was individually wrapped in plastic, I can’t deny that it kept all the treats tasting just as they should.
Hokkaido Adzuki Tea Review
The box came with 2 individually wrapped teabags of adzuki tea. This tea is made from roasting and drying adzuki red beans to create a soothing, smooth infusion.
I drink a lot of tea, and I don’t mean PG Tips.
From Argentina to China and everywhere in-between, I’ve reviewed teas from all over the world for our blog. Adzuki tea was new to me, and honestly, I felt a tad let down by it.
It has a slightly nutty, sweet aroma but very little flavour. It’s refreshing but it’s all on the nose with no real depth of flavour to enjoy.
Given how strongly flavoured the snacks were, I think I’d have picked something stronger to go in this box. Adzuki might be from the Hokkaido region, but a tea with a more tannic edge would have complemented the dairy-based sweets better.
Ceramic Kobachi Bowl
This bowl is adorable! It’s a microwave and dishwasher-safe ceramic bowl with a design inspired by the chrysanthemum. The size confused me a little (it’s the perfect size to be a tea bowl) but after a quick Google I realised it was made for serving snacks.
Now that I’ve finished all my snacks, only this bowl, the booklet and the postcard remain. I like that I have a memento to remember the box by.
You might be thinking “why buy a box that’s gone so quickly with only a small bowl left?” but you need to remember – Sakuraco is a subscription. If you were keeping more than just a small bowl and booklet with each box, you’d be overwhelmed with clutter quite quickly.
Sakuraco Box Price Breakdown (UK)
To buy the Hokkaido box in June 2026, you’d need to pay $37.50 (at the time of writing). If you subscribe for multiple months, the price per box goes down, with 12 months offering the most value at $32.50 per box.
However, you also need to add on shipping costs. To ship to the UK, Sakuraco charges an additional $14.99 for express/priority shipping with an estimated delivery time of 7 to 28 days.
Yeah, that made me wince too.
But on the other hand, the box is heavy and stuffed to the brim with snacks – it was never going to be cheap to ship from Japan. That’s another thing that I loved, by the way. It’s always fun to receive parcels from abroad, knowing they’ve been on an adventure to reach your doorstep.
Based on the exchange rate on June 3rd 2026, the total cost for the single box and shipping is £39.10.
Where to Buy the Sakuraco Snack Box Subscription in the UK
If you’d like to try the Sakuraco box – or gift it to someone – then you need to buy it directly from the Sakuraco shop. They ship to the UK and most other countries around the world.
Ultimately, I thought my box was worth the money and a really delightful experience from start to finish. The quality of the food was great, the variety was well-thought out, the booklet explaining the history and culture was interesting, and just in general it feels like Sakuraco have gone out of their way to make everything feel just a little bit premium (even down to the gold foil on the box).
Would I subscribe to this box monthly? On my current budget, no. However, I most definitely would buy the odd box throughout the year when I want to try something totally new.
The Sakuraco Snack Box is ideal not just for people who are fascinated by Japan, but real foodies too. As an adult, I rarely get to try totally new foods unless I’ve gone abroad, so Sakuraco is offering something unique here. Opening each individual snack evoked so much curiosity and joy for me.
My final score for the snack box is 4.8 out of 5, with that 0.2 drop due to the excessive packaging and tea let down.
FAQs
Each month contains a range of sweet and savoury snacks, plus a tableware item and tea. All of the products are made in Japan and follow a theme.
Yes they do, but you’ll need to pay the shipping fee for each box.
If you are buying in the UK, the box is usually dispatched within 3 to 5 business days and arrives between 7 and 28 days later. Double check the Sakuraco website for up-to-date shipping info.
My verdict is yes, if you are treating yourself. It feels like a premium item and the shipping cost to the UK gives it a premium price tag. Thankfully you can buy a one-off box if you’d like to treat yourself or gift a box.
